Last Letter From Mexico

I can´t believe that this is the last letter I´ll be writing home from Mexico. It has gone by all so fast. I am very excited but pretty nervous at the same time. It will all be good. This week went well. It was kind of slower but we did make progress with some people. I forgot my planner at home, so I can´t really remember much, but I will do my best. On Tuesday we visited Martha and talked with her about prayer. I think what makes me saddest about leaving is that I´m not going to be here when she goes to church and gets baptized. She was one of my first investigators here in Papantla and we have learned a lot together. It was awesome to see how much she´s changed and grown. We were able to find Alejandro on his way home which was awesome because our appointment with him last satruday fell through.

Contacting

Tuesday we started off the day well with a visit early with Alejandro. He is progressing awesomely. He reads, comprehends, and remembers what we tell him. We read 3 Nefi 11 and asked invited him to be baptized. He said he´d love to with more preparation and more study. We weren´t able to put a date with him, but now we are all on the same page with what we´re working for. We made come contacts and invited quite a bit afterwards. We were going to do divisions with the elders quorum, but they cancelled on us. It was not fun trying to find people to visit out of the blue. Thursday we had weekly planning in the morning, then later visited with some furure investigators and then Karina and her family. We went to find some other families, but they weren´t home either. I guess summer vacation could be part of the reason.

Blessings

Friday we went to an early appointment which fell, but then we finished contacting the street and found a lady that was interested in on of the Finding Faith in Christ videos. Too bad I won´t be able to visit with her. After lunch we went with Martha and I kind of realized something was bothering her. I guess she is having problems with her daughter that lives with her and her other kids don´t really have contact with her so she feels really alone and is worrying a lot about the future. She has been reading the Gospel Principles book and read that we can give blessings. She asked for one and I had the opportunity to give it to her. We started to talk to her and comfort with passages from the scriptures and she got better. It was a good lesson. I just hope the ward can do a good job with fellowshipping her and doing more activities and visits to help her out.

Carne Asada Again-YUM

On saturday we went and taught alejandro and his family. There is a lot of potential there. Later we went and helped the elders in the area next to us with their baptism. We went to visit others, but again they weren´t home. We ended the night eating carne asada again, which was very delicious.

Sad Sunday

Sunday was kind of disappointing. We were planning on having Alejandro and his family, 2 investigators and a less active, and another less active and her dad go to church, but only one less active came, but without her dad. We tried doing some visits and finding some families, but no dice.

I'll Be Seeing You!

This next week is going to be pretty busy, I am pretty much only going to be here on Tue, Wed, and Thur. I leave papantla thursday afternoon. I already have those days filled with last visits with investigators and to say goodbye to members.I love you all and I´ll see you next week. Peace! Elder Evans"

Time is Getting Short!

This week was good. Time is winding down. It is pretty crazy, because at times I don´t realize that i´ll be home so soon. I was talking with someone about baseball and all of the sudden it occured to me that i soon will be able to see games and that I´ll see the world series too. I think it just seemed to me that leaving wasn´t really going to happen and that I was just going to keep on serving my mission. It is going to come all at once at the end i think. We found a couple new investigators, I don´t think they´ll progress much, but it was nice to be able to teach while tracting. We visited martha and taught her about testimony. On Tuesday we had interviews with President Call. He is a great man and is exactly what the mission needs right now. Sister call is so nice. It´s too bad that I won´t be able to get to know them better, but at the same time it´s okay because it´s going to be a bit different with the logistics of the mission.

I'm Huge - Me with a Luchador mask on

Me in a big graveyard in Papantla

Invitations

We taught Briseyde and Zuli on Wednesday. We gave Zuli a book of mormon and she was excited to get it, and already wanted to start to read it. We read a chapter and talked about the importance of reading and praying and what it means for us. Later we visited a new investigator named Alejandro and it turns out he is a very strong investigator. He read various chapters from the book of mormon and prayed and feels like he recieved an answer. Wednesday was good. We planned on inviting the three of them to be baptized on August 12th on Saturday

Visiting

On Friday we tracted and later visited with Martha and watched a video called- *the introduction to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints* She liked it a lot because it explains many things very clearly and talks a lot about what the church as an organization does in the world. We went to Briseyde and Zuli later, but they weren´t there, we got there pretty late too. So we weren´t able to invite them to be baptized.

Knock, Knock, Nobody's Home!

On Saturday we went to visit a lot of people to visit them- but none of them were home. It was a pretty tough day. To top it off Alejandro wasn´t home so we weren´t able to invite him to church or talk about baptism with him. It was pretty sad because we had a really good day on wednesday but saturday was kind of the opposite. Now I won´t be able to see these people baptized, but It doesn´t matter becuase we will keep preparing them and if they get baptized after I leave all is well. I am fine with that.

Last Mexican Fast Sunday

On Sunday I gave my last testimony in a Mexican fast and testimony meeting. It was a good day and we were able to visit with some member families and find a couple of less actives for future reference. Everything is going good. It will be a quick 2 weeks I think. I´m just trying right now to get everything in order so that I can leave calmly and end right. It sounds like you all had a good week full of family and fun. I hope everything continues to go well for you all. I hope you have fun in Flagstaff. I love you, thank you for all your love and support. Elder Evans

Finding and Frustration

Things are going well. We have been finding new investigators which is always awesome, but the bad part about this week was all of the appointments that didn´t show up. On Tuesday we had our weekly district meeting and of course we hit up the tacos in the mercado afterwards. (Insert cool picture here)

We visited Sthephany and Briseyde, (the recent convert and her sis. that was going to get baptized with her a year ago) and they brought a friend who used to listen to the missionaries way back when. She seemed to pay a lot of attention and was interested. The only bad part was that we could never get to visit them after that Tuesday. Let´s cross our fingers for this week. Later we visited Martha and talked about Alma 32 and how the Word is like a seed. It seemed to fit her needs perfectly. Last week she went to the MoTab event and this week some members have been stopping by to talk with her, get her excited, and leave her old Ensigns. (Insert other picture here)

(Martha at her place of work-selling chickens)
She wants her daughter to listen to us, so we are arranging that as of right now. We haven´t been able to see Gaspar and Margarita all week, I think we´re losing them. This saddens me.

Planting Seeds

On Wednesday we did some contacting and found a nice lady from another city called Tuxpan. She said that she was going to be moving back and would like to visit the chapel there one sunday. It was a good seed planting opportunity. Later we did visits with the Elder´s Quorum and visited some less active members. The ward is looking pretty sad lately. There are zero Aaronic Priesthood holders, the three High Priests is the Bishopric, and 2 out of the 5 Elders that go are excommunicated members. Yep, it can only go up from there. Some weeks are better than others in regards to attendance. 30 to 60 Members go every week. . . .Anyways. . .Later we visited The Vazquez family and helped the sister out with her thoughts on adversity. It was great, every scripture that my companion shared in Comp Study worked out great for her needs. I also added some of my favorite scriptures on the topic and it seemed like we helped her out ok."

Downs in the Mission

Thursday was a pretty tough day. Not much went on appointment wise and had a tough time contacting. We did end the day with a Family Home Evening with a part member family watching Jesus Christ: The Great Mediator. Friday we visited with a contact that we mad on Wednesday. She seemed very nice and has family that are members in Mexico City. The lesson went well, but unfortunately we won´t be able to go back for a couple of weeks. We had yet more appointments fall, but went and helped the missionaries in the other ward with a FHE that they were doing.

Golden Investigators

It was Saturday when we found a couple of investigators with great potential. The elders before us had found and taught them and did a very good job. Alejandro remembered quite a bit about prophets and praying. We gave them a book of mormon and re taught the first lesson. They weren´t able to come to church this week, but this sunday we are hoping they´ll be able to come. That is the real challenge with us right now, nobody is coming to church. We go to pick them up, remind them via phone calls or text messages, but without any luck. It makes it kind of hard to complete the goal for baptisms that we set for this transfer. But there are still 2 sundays left before I leave to Tampico. . .

Good Eats

On Sunday we went to church, went to eat octopus at the bishop´s house, saw that USA lost to Mexico in the US for the first time in 10 years, went to some more fallen appointments, then celebrated Elder Avila Jr´s (my ex-comp´s little brother) birthday with a Carne Asada. It was very good. I´m going to miss Mexican Food. The good thing is that Reddin cooks the food here very similar."

Carne Asada for Elder Avila's Birthday

Home Comings

It was so good to see Aubs home and the pictures of the family at the airport. It is just a look ahead of things to come for me, I guess. Weird. The less time I start to have here, the more I am realizing that I am really going to miss it. I am really excited to come home though.

I'm an Uncle!

Yay! I didn´t even remember that Adele was going to be born last week! She sure is a cutie. I guess I won´t miss too much of her childhood like I have some of the other nieces and nephews. I love being an uncle again. It´s too bad I´ll miss Trav & Steph in AZ. I guess that gives me that much more reason to make a NY trip to see them and the little Collin. It´s good that you are all enjoying the whole family together. Sorry I couldn´t make it. Well, I can´t think of anything else too important to say at the moment. I love you all and hope you have another great week! See you in a few. . . Elder Evans

Random picture from way back when to show that there are alligators in Mexico

Under the Weather

Well, I recieved a short letter this week so I am going to try to write a shorter one. This week wasn´t the greatest. I was feeling a little under the weather for a couple days with a cold I think. It was the first time I had a cough and stuffy nose for over 2 years. It was a pretty weird feeling, especially because it´s pretty hot out.

Martha

Things are still going well with Martha- she was able to go to the transmission of the 80th anniversary of the music and the spoken word. I thought it was going to be a devotional, but it ended up being a concert. Who knows what she thought of it. The bad part was that here they said it started at 5:30 but it really started at 6:30. We had to wait an hour, then the program lasted and hour and a half. Oh well. At least she was able to get to know the church and I hope that she felt good being there. We will have to see.